


Call Me Poppy

by Niamcat



Series: Call Me Poppy [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Depression, Gen, Injury, Loss, Orphan - Freeform, Remembering Parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-15 00:38:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16923312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Niamcat/pseuds/Niamcat
Summary: Harry, 11 has just defeated Lord Voldemort for the second time in his life but that's not the part that has him upset. How is he going to keep up the smiley Harry Potter image when there are people that he barely remembers but misses so much? While sitting in the Hospital Wing, however, trying to wrap his head around everything that has happened, he makes an unlikely friend who seems to know a lot more about his parents than he would have originally thought.





	Call Me Poppy

**Author's Note:**

> There is absolutely no romance in this. It is just something that popped into my head today. I was thinking of making it into a series. Harry spends so much time in the Hospital Wing it makes sense for him to chat to the beloved matron.

Harry was lying back on the bed in the Hospital Wing. It was the second time he had been in here since the school year began but the shock of being in the bed himself, instead of worrying over Ron's bed hoping Madam Pomfrey wouldn't suspect the bite, had him sitting in silence for a moment.  
Headmaster Dumbledore had just left and explained the whole situation to him but it was only really starting to piece itself together as he snuck a small licorice wand from his new stash of sweets.

He had seen his parents again last night and after everything, it still seemed to hurt his heart. There was no way Voldemort could have brought back his parents and there was a part of him, a part that distinctly sounded like Hermione and Molly Weasley and somebody else combined, told him that even if his parents could be brought back it wouldn't be worth the death of so many others.

He closed his eyes and sighed. He could feel his bottom jaw wobble a little as the water in his eyes tried to overflow. When he opened his eyes again he was looking up at the surprisingly kind face of Madam Pomfrey. It was very different from the stern face she had given him when he had been trying to convince her to let him stay by Ron's side.

"Mr. Potter, Harry, dear. Can you hear me?" Her voice spoke softly as she sat carefully on the seat next to him. She had apparently been trying to catch his attention.

He wiped at his eyes and cleared his throat but when he spoke his voice was shockingly weak.

"Oh, uh, sorry Miss" he swallowed and took the vial she was holding out to him. Staring at the glass rim avoiding the look of sympathy she was giving him.

"Does your head still hurt? That will help ease it a little" She spoke so softly as if she was afraid a note in her voice would cause him great pain.

He drank the potion and he could feel the dark cloud in his brain begin to clear. But what it left felt like rain on a window and a deep sadness.

"Thanks" he coughed and he wanted to wince at how childlike he sounded. He had just fought off Voldemort again and yet he sounded like a five-year-old Dudley being refused ice cream.

"Albus told me about the mirror." The familiarity in her voice as she spoke of the great wizard would have shocked Harry if he hadn't felt so weary.

"He was of the mind that you would be walking out of here without the thought clinging to you. I suspect that might not be the case." At her words, Harry's head snapped up to look her in the eye. She wasn't looking at him with sympathy anymore. Instead, there was this look of understanding radiating from her features and before Harry realized what was happening there were tears streaming down his face as his jaw began to wobble as it had before. He clenched it and bit his lip but it was no use. The thought of his mothers smiling face and his father's nod of support was so overwhelming.

"I hadn't realized how much I needed them" He choked out a sob as Madam Pomfrey pulled him into a hug. She patted his back and let him cling onto her uniform. She smelled of sharp spices that tickled Harry's nose and a citrus smell that seemed to calm him.

"We never really do," She said as his breathing began to slow down a little. Harry could hear a hint of a knowing smile in her voice. She knew what this felt like it seemed and for once Harry felt like he didn't have to hide how it hurt. He didn't have to pretend to be strong and hide the jealousy of watching his two friends with their families. He didn't have to bite his lip as his friends made plans for the summer holidays and delighted over the nearing end of the term.

Harry finally sat back out of her embrace and wiped his eyes. He felt a little unstable still but he could handle this a little better. At least now it didn't feel like he was fighting a losing battle trying to keep emotions hidden away.

"I swear that Weasley friend of yours had to be restrained from eating your last chocolate frog! He's just like his older brother William."

Harry let out a laugh at the thought of Hermione and Madam Pomfrey hiding his chocolate away from Ron. He took the small chocolate toad from her and bit into it letting the familiar warmth fill him up and allowing himself to breathe a little freer.

They sat in silence for a little while, Madam Pomfrey checked him over with a few wordless spells and when she sat back in her chair he found himself asking a peculiar question.

"How long have you worked here Miss?" His head had tilted to the side as he asked her.

"Please call me Poppy, dear. We've reached that point I think." She smiled at him warmly and he felt himself mirroring it. The rain in his head was beginning to dry up and there was now a little fire beginning to sprout. One that was suspiciously similar to the one found in the Gryffindor Common Room.

"I have been here since 1971. A long time ago it seems now." She gazes at the room around her as if she can see the time whirring back.

Harry remembers the significance of that year. His father had joined the Gryffindor Quidditch Team in 1972. He had been in the second year. Which meant that Madam Pomfrey had started working in Hogwarts the same year his parents had begun their education.

Madam Pomfrey, _Poppy_ , gave him another knowing smile. It was as if she knew exactly what he was thinking.

"That's right dear, I knew your parents."

"What were they like? I mean the Headmaster and Hagrid have told me a little bit but- well - " Harry was at a loss for words, how could he explain that the more he found out about his parents the more he wanted to know. It was like a thirst that would never quench.

"It's never really enough?" She asked helpfully and Harry nodded vigorously. She smiled softly at him. "I knew them both in very different ways. Your father was in and out of here every few months from Quidditch scrapes. I believe I may I have healed every bone in his body twice by the time he left here." Harry snorted, a smile seemed to be growing on his face as a small image or painting of his father began to take shape in his mind.

"He was much like those Weasley twins I have seen you hang around with often enough. But he had a charm about him that always warmed my heart. I would never admit this to him but that boy could convince a fish out of the water."

Her voice was light when she spoke of his father but it changed drastically in her next months.

"Your mother, however" here her voice cracked a little and Harry felt himself sit up straighter. "Your mother was an excellent witch; courageous and fiery. She was going to be a Healer, I bet no one told you that." Harry shook his head in awe

"If that dreadful war never started she would've been the head in St. Mungo's by now. I know because I used to teach her a little. In her later years at Hogwarts, she became somewhat of an assistant to me. I loved Lily like a little sister. She was only six years my junior after all."

Harry's heart broke a little at her words. He never knew. How could he have?

He felt another little tear drift down his cheek and Madam Pomfrey wiped it away. "You have her eyes. And I suspect her heart too."

Suddenly there was a loud sound outside the great doors to the Hospital Wing.

"Hermione! It's fine, look Mum sent over a box of chocolate frogs. He won't notice a few of them missing. " Ron's voice was unmistakable and Harry quickly wiped away any sadness in hope of seeing his two best friends.

Poppy was up and over to the doors quickly. "No not today I still have so many checks to do and that boy does not seem to know what the word quiet means."

Harry blanched. "Just five minutes!" Harry pleaded with her and she gave him a stern look in response. It seemed their little heart to heart was almost forgotten.

"Absolutely not!" Her voice was crisp now, no more soft Madam Poppy. She was very close to the door now.

"You let Professor Dumbledore in...." He tried desperately to reason with her.

"Well, of course, that was the Headmaster, quite different. You need rest."The last three words were spoken slowly and deliberately.

Harry quickly lay back onto the pillows with a little smirk.  
"I am resting, look, lying down and everything. Oh, go on Madam Pomfrey..... _Poppy_ "

Madam Poppy smiled back at the frazzled young boy and was reminded of someone who would have said something very very similar.

"Oh alright. But five minute only! You certainly have your fathers charm. "

Harry grinned back at her as she opened the doors and let Ron and Hermione in.


End file.
